According to Style Weekly, Dave Brockie, better known as Oderus Urungus, the founder and lead singer of renowned metal band GWAR, has died. Roommates reportedly found Brockie's body at his home Sunday evening (March 23). "I wish it was a joke," former GWAR bassist Chris Bopst, a music writer for Style Weekly, tells the site. "Everyone is in shock." Brockie's death was also reportedly confirmed by another former GWAR bassist, Michael Bishop. Brockie was 50 years old.

According to Australia's TheMusic.com.au, GWAR's management will issue a statement regarding reports of Brockie's passing at approximately 1:00 p.m. EST today.

Brockie is not the first member of GWAR to die at an early age. GWAR guitarist Cory Smoot, who played the character of Flattus Maximus for over ten years, was discovered dead on the band's tour bus on November 3, 2011. He was 34 years old.

In a January 2012 interview with Full Metal Jackie, Brockie stated about Smoot's passing: "I think Cory's death is a big wake-up call for all of us. We all breathed a big sigh of relief when we found out it wasn't a drug overdose, to speak quite frankly. But then to think that he was 34 and died of a heart attack — it's really scary."

He continued: "Everybody out there needs to take care of themselves, especially you guys who are playing in bands and starting to get up into your 40s and you're all sitting there just like me saying, 'Holy shit, this is still going on and I can keep doing this probably for the rest of my life?' Yeah, you can, but you have to take of yourself. You really, really, really, really do. So I'm trying to quit smoking right now."

GWAR's latest album, "Battle Maximus", sold around 3,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 109 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD — the band's first full-length studio effort since the loss of Flattus Maximus — was issued on September 17, 2013 on Metal Blade Records.

GWAR's previous CD, 2010's "Bloody Pit Of Horror", opened with around 2,800 units — roughly half of the first-week tally registered by 2009's "Lust In Space", which premiered with 5,000 copies to land at No. 96.

Saw them when they were first starting out touring in a P.O.S. van. Years later I saw them again in a bigger P.O.S.
I don't think they were really in it for the money but I could be wrong. They definitely weren't superstars.
He was the last original member.